Retrofitted Concrete Bridge Columns Under Shaketable Excitation

Three 1/3-scale circular flexure-dominated, retrofitted, reinforced concrete bridge columns were studied using the University of Nevada, Reno, seismic shaketable system. Two steel jacket retrofit and one carbon fiber retrofit columns were tested and compared to a previously studied as-built column. The steel jacket retrofit columns showed increased capacity and ductility over the as-built but were adversely affected by low level motion and variable load path. A significant increase in capacity and ductility was observed for the carbon fiber jacket retrofit. Simple time-history analytical models can predict the performance of the columns adequately, although lap splice degradation is not well predicted.